Meet the ‘ASMRtist’ engineer captivating an army of TikTok fans with her whispering videos

Texan 25-year-old ‘Fluidity ASMR’ says her hushed tones on TikTok have won her a staggering 14.5 million likes

Fluidity believes the stresses of modern life are what draw people to ASMR. (Collect/PA Real Life)

A risk improvement engineer who spends her spare time whispering has gone viral on social media and gathered more than 800,000 fans on TikTok where her videos get millions of views and she is known as an “ASMRtist.”

While the 25-year-old, who will only reveal herself as Fluidity ASMR – which is the name of her YouTube channel – says no one bats an eyelid if she walks down the street, her hushed tones on the video platform have won her 14.5 million likes and can trigger remarkable reactions.

She is one of a growing band of practitioners of ASMR, which stands for autonomous sensory meridian response and is a tingling sensation that usually begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine, having usually been brought about by particular sounds or noise, like rainfall or whispering.

As well as whispering, clicking her tongue and scratching objects on her microphone, Fluidity, of Austin, Texas, USA, says her “scenario videos,” where she will play a character, like a doctor pretending to examine the viewer, are very popular, adding: “The role play videos are popular, but it’s hard to predict which ones will go viral.

“I try out different types of videos – some where I’m just making sounds like clicking my fingers and others where I play a doctor.

“When I first made my channel I never thought it would get this reaction, but people seem to love the content and I love making it for them.”

Fluidity started out as a fan of ASMR videos before she began making her own.

She said: “I’ve always been active on social media, but I’ve never really posted on YouTube until I started my channel.

“It was during lockdown in May 2020 that I created my YouTube account and soon after discovered TikTok.”

She added: “I was just posting ASMR videos that I knew I would enjoy watching, but I never expected it to take off in the way that it has done.

“I’d been watching it for a few years. I was first introduced to it through a meme that was making fun of an AMSRtist, but I thought it looked really interesting, so I went on her page and checked it out.”

Shocked when she first experienced the tingling sensations triggered by the videos, she could not believe how relaxing ASMR was.

She said: “I remember thinking to myself, ‘Oh my gosh, this actually works and it’s actually really relaxing.’

“After that, I went to YouTube and found a bunch of other people who did it and I started thinking, ‘This would be really cool to try myself at some point down the line.”

And since she became serious about video making when the pandemic hit, she has reached millions of people.

ASMRtists offer an escape from the horrors of the world and provide a warm, safe space to relax and find comfort.

Fluidity

She said: “I started making TikToks in November 2020 on my page, Fluidity ASMR and some have millions of views.

“My two most viral videos both have over 10m views. One is of me pretending to clean the viewer’s ears and I pull cotton out of them and the other one is where I’m snapping my fingers, trying to get the viewer to focus on different parts of the screen and follow a light.

“I love any kind of personal attention videos, where I’m getting really close to the screen and pretending to take care of the viewers and touching the camera, as if it’s their face. I’ll act out scenarios where I’m pretending to wash off the viewer’s face mask.”

She added: “I just think those are the kind of videos that I always love to watch as a consumer of ASMR content, so it’s fun to be on the other side of it and I really try to make that experience special for someone else.”

But Fluidity admits that people can be judgemental when they find out she creates ASMR videos.

She said: “I don’t really tell people about it, just because there’s a stigma associated with ASMR, but I’ve actually had a couple of friends who I know in real life stumble onto my TikTok account and once they saw the size of my following, they were pretty impressed.”

She added: “Even if they don’t really understand ASMR or it’s not something that they are looking for as a viewer, it’s still cool to see that your friend has built up something successful like that.

“I feel like my family don’t understand it at all, but they support me no matter what.”

And some of the positive feedback she has had from viewers has made it all worthwhile.

She said: “I’ve had people commenting on my channel or sending me emails saying things like, ‘I’ve been working in healthcare and it’s so nice to have your channel to come home to and help me relax, so I can actually get a good night’s sleep’.

“It’s just crazy to think of the difference it makes and of the actual effect it can have on people.

“I know I’ve struggled with sleep my whole life and finding ASMR myself honestly changed my life. Now it’s changed my life all over again with the community of people I get to help on TikTok.”

But Fluidity is yet to make the ASMR content her full-time job.

She said: “I still work full-time as a risk improvement engineer, so it does get pretty hectic with work and making videos. People have asked me before if I would consider quitting my job, but I don’t think I have been making videos for long enough yet.

“It’s still early days for me and I’m just seeing where this goes, but I’m definitely getting to a point where there is starting to be a lot more money coming in.”

She added: “At first, I thought that I would just use any money I made from TikTok to buy props and new equipment.

“I’m at the point now where I don’t have to do that and I have a little bit of extra cash coming in too, although I am not going to say how much.

“Doing TikTok full-time might be a possibility for the future but, for now, I am just seeing where it goes.”

She added: “I’ve found a good mix between doing videos I love to make and videos that I know will do well, because sometimes they’re not the same.”

And Fluidity believes the stresses of modern life are what draw people to ASMR.

She said: “People are looking for something to help them to sleep.”

She added: “It’s such a stressful world nowadays that any respite that you can have from that really helps, especially in the form of ASMR where, like I said, it is about giving viewers personal attention or talking directly to them through the camera.

“As a viewer, I look for videos where I feel like it is my best friend talking to me and helping me feel so much better and having that connection.

“ASMRtists offer an escape from the horrors of the world and provide a warm, safe space to relax and find comfort.”